While Naruto's main body remained in the Hidden Snow Village, his female avatar wasn't idle.
Pain had also assigned her a tailed-beast capture mission. However, she strongly insisted on accompanying Deidara and Sasori of the Red Sand to witness how they captured the One-Tail.
Deidara had long since lost count of how many times he had rolled his eyes at her.
He had never particularly liked this mysterious new member.
More significantly, Naruto's female avatar possessed the same Explosion Release kekkei genkai and used similar attack methods!
How could anyone else be worthy of possessing something as beautiful as his art?
For the past three years, Deidara had repeatedly tried to challenge her to a contest of art. Unfortunately for him, the female avatar always avoided the confrontation.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
As Deidara climbed onto his white clay bird and prepared to fly into Sunagakure to capture Gaara, he glared at her in annoyance.
"Are you finally willing to show yourself?"
Just as in the original story, Sasori had successfully infiltrated Sunagakure by reawakening the sleeper agent he had planted inside the village.
Deidara had eagerly volunteered to capture Gaara himself so that he could display his art.
"I'm here to save you before you get yourself killed," the female avatar replied with a smile.
"Hmph! What an arrogant woman!"
Deidara glared at her coldly.
"Watch carefully. I'll show you what true art looks like! Just because you possess the same Explosion Release doesn't mean your art can surpass mine!"
With that, Deidara flew toward Sunagakure.
Due to Naruto's interference, Gaara had never undergone the change he experienced in the original story.
He remained unstable, violent, and consumed by darkness.
However, his strength had also increased tremendously over the past three years. He was now even more powerful than his original counterpart.
Redemption was a death flag, while darkness was eternal.
That saying wasn't entirely baseless.
Gaara could now freely use a large portion of Shukaku's power, giving him seemingly endless chakra.
Because of that, Deidara's mission might end in tragedy.
Even in the original story, Deidara's victory over Gaara had hardly been honorable.
Their battlefield had been directly above Sunagakure. Gaara had been forced to fight Deidara while simultaneously protecting the entire village from his explosive clay.
Deidara had exploited this weakness by dropping a C3 bomb on Sunagakure.
Having undergone his redemption and become the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara used an enormous amount of sand and chakra to shield the village from the explosion.
Deidara then seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
Even after being severely wounded, Gaara used the last of his chakra to move the massive shield of sand away from the village before losing consciousness.
That scene deeply moved countless villagers.
Then those same villagers carried on with their lives as usual.
Sunagakure's elders merely sent a request for assistance to Konoha before deploying their available forces to guard the borders against a possible invasion.
They didn't organize a proper rescue force for the Kazekage who had just risked his life to protect them.
Even after Konoha's reinforcements traveled all the way to rescue Gaara, Sunagakure still showed little interest in sending shinobi alongside them.
If Chiyo hadn't wanted to meet her grandson, Sasori, Sunagakure might not have sent anyone at all.
How deeply "moving."
In the current timeline, however, Gaara had never become Kazekage.
Sunagakure's leaders would never allow an unstable jinchūriki who frequently lost control of his emotions to lead the village.
Unfortunately, the village had also failed to produce another suitable Kage-level candidate.
Therefore, the council of elders had temporarily assumed control of Sunagakure.
Chiyo and her younger brother, Ebizō, had withdrawn from worldly affairs years ago and no longer participated in the village's administration.
Sunagakure wasn't the only major village being governed by a council of elders. Kirigakure currently faced a similar situation, so such an arrangement wasn't unprecedented.
There simply wasn't a better option.
Now, as Deidara invaded Sunagakure, Gaara remained inside his home and showed no intention of interfering.
The village's shinobi could only watch helplessly as Deidara flew freely above them and dropped one bomb after another.
Explosions tore through buildings and streets.
The air-defense ballistae stationed throughout the village couldn't even scratch Deidara.
Standing atop Sunagakure's towering outer wall, the female avatar watched the destruction with a faint smile.
"Giving me Explosion Release was definitely one of the main body's better decisions."
She watched Deidara soar safely above Sunagakure.
"Air superiority really is absurdly useful."
As the bombardment grew more intense, increasingly furious voices rose from within the village.
"Where is Gaara?! Why hasn't he come out to stop the enemy?!"
"If that enemy wasn't here for him, our village wouldn't have suffered this much damage!"
"That's right! Tell Gaara to get out here!"
As the casualties continued to rise, Sunagakure's villagers and shinobi finally lost their patience.
They began demanding that Gaara appear and fight Deidara.
Inside his home, Gaara listened to those voices and slowly clenched his fists.
His expression became increasingly dark.
Baki and Kankurō had already arrived in his room. The two exchanged complicated looks.
Sunagakure had learned of Akatsuki's existence and objective through intelligence provided by Konoha.
Shukaku was Sunagakure's only strategic deterrent.
They couldn't allow Akatsuki to capture him.
However, the village was suffering greater damage with every passing moment.
They also couldn't allow an enemy to fly above Sunagakure and bomb the village without resistance. If they did, what little dignity Sunagakure still possessed would disappear.
High above the village, Deidara heard the enraged shouts and smiled triumphantly.
"Gaara! Are you going to hide in your shell forever? Come out here and let me kill you!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens of streams of sand shot toward Deidara from the ground.
Their speed far surpassed Sunagakure's ballista bolts.
Caught off guard, Deidara was forced to steer his clay bird aside and dodge in a panic.
Gaara finally appeared in the sky.
Standing atop a mass of floating sand, he stared at Deidara with undisguised killing intent.
The villagers' accusations and Deidara's insults had pushed him to the edge.
Gaara's expression twisted with rage as Shukaku's form gradually began covering his body.
Watching from the outer wall, Naruto's female avatar suddenly had a thought.
"If Pain went to Konoha to capture Naruto, how would the villagers there react?"
"Oh no! Is he transforming? How frightening! So frightening! We should hurry and run away!"
Tobi's exaggerated cries suddenly came from beside her.
While pretending to panic, he casually brushed his right hand against the female avatar's arm as though it had been an accident.
Contact with any part of her body would allow Tobi to plant White Zetsu spores on her.
That was precisely why he had disguised the contact as an innocent mistake.